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SPEECH 



OF THE 



HON. SILAS WRIGHT, 



AT A 



MASS MEETING 



OF THB 



DEMOCRACY OF BROOKLYN, 



HELD AT THE COLONNADE GARDEN, ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPT. 29, 1840. 



X NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY YOUNGS & HUNT, 

129 NASSAU-STREET, 
(Clinton Hall,) 

1840. I 

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SPEECH 



OF THE 



HON. SILAS WRIGHT 



The Sub-Treasury— The Standing Army— The Purse 
and the Sioord—The Currency—Executive Patronage 
and its Influence on the exercise of the Elective Fran- 
chise—The labour of the mechanic a marketable com- 
modity— The infl.uence of a debased currency on the 
poor man's labour— A National Bank; its inability to 
preserve a stable and true standard of value— The 
new Militiaprojectof2QQfimvien— The Florida War, 

The following- speech of the Hon. Silas Wright, 
says the Editor of the Brookbjn Daily Neivs, is 
from the pen of Mr. Sutton, (professional short- 
hand writer,) and all who heard Mr. Wright, will 
bear testimony to the extraordinary fidelity of this 
able report. 

Mr. Wright commenced by expressing his satis- 
faction at meeting his fellow-citizens, in order to ren- 
der to them some account of the responsible trust 



which they had reposed in him. He declared his 
determination to deal fairly and frankly with his 
auditors, and to give no oifence to his political oppo- 
nents in the remarks which he was about to make. 

We are told [said he] that the present head of our govern- 
ment must be displaced. And why ? He is our fellow-citizen 
and has done his duty faithfully. Why then should we take 
the helm of government from his hands and give it to another? 
What is the great fault which our opponents impute to Mr. Van 
Buren ? It is that he has made the treasury of the people as 
independent as the people themselves. This being the case, I 
sliall proceed to discuss the question of the Sub-Treasury ; not 
simply by refuting the fallacies of our opponents, but by proving, 
as I hope, incontestibly, the justice and utility of that important 
measure. 

What is that sub-treasury bill ? And for what are all those 
bolts, and bars, and safes constructed, of which our political op- 
ponents speak? Why, they are made, and the keys are to be 
entrusted to trust-worthy agents, to keep our money which is 
collected from our pockets, instead of being placed in similarly 
constructed safes, and the keys deposited with a board of direct- 
ors, who constitute a private corporation. And what are the ob- 
jections so startlingly put forth by our opponents to a system so 
simple, so plain, and so safe — a system which they invest with 
BO much mystery, but to which mystery does not belong ? 
What, I say, are those objections? First, that it is a tyrannical 
measure ; that it places the purse and the sword of the country 
in the single hands of the President of the Union. Tlie ob- 
jection is starthng, and let us examine it calmly and dispassion- 
ately. What is the purse of the country 1 It is the treasury 
of the United States. 

1 havo described what that is to be, and how it is to be kept. 
How is the money to be obtained frci^-^ that treasury ? Our 



Constitution tells us in the plainest and simplest language : — by 
appropriations made by law, and in no other form ; for with 
that provision there is a prohibition that no money shall be 
drawn from the public treasury, but in pursuance of an appro- 
priation by law, by a warrant from the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, drawn on the Treasurer of the United States ; and when 
it reaches him, and is drawn in conformity with law, by his 
payment of the money, or giving his draft on one of the Re- 
ceivers-general, wherever located, or Sub-treasurers, as they may 
be called. How, then, is the purse of the country in the hands 
of the President? Oh, we are told by our opponents that the 
President has the right to remove the Treasurer, or Sub-Treas- 
urers. Now let us take the case of the Treasurer. And sup- 
pose our President corrupt enough to desire to possess himself 
of our money, against the provision of the Constitution and of 
the law, has he not, when the banks are the depositories of our 
money, the same power to remove the treasurer as now ? Pre- 
cisely the same. May he not then go to him and say to him, ''give 
me your draft on the Bank for $100,000, if you please, or I 
will remove you from office," as well as he can go to him now, 
and demand from him a draft on Stephen Allen, the Sub-treas- 
urer of New- York, under a threat of removal? Is the case al- 
tered ? But go further. The President may go to Stephen 
Allen and tell him, " Pay me from your vaults one hundred 
thousand dollars, or 1 will remove you from office." What sa5's 
Mr. Allen — " Under the law, sir, you must present me with an 
appropriation bill ; but you present me with no appropriation 
bill, you produce no warrant from the Secretary to the Treasu- 
ry, or any draft from the Treasurer of the United States." " No ; 
but pay me the money, or I will remove you from office." Mr, 
Allen then holds up the law, and he reads that if he lets the 
President or any person have one dollar — he makes himself a 
felon, and subjects himself to the punishment of five years' im- 
prisonment in the State Prison. And will he do that to save his 
office ? (No, no.) Such is the security under the system now- 



Now take the case of the banks. The President goes to one 
of these deposite banks and tells the Cashier, " I must have this 
money, or I will take the public deposites from you and place 
them in another institution." The Cashier makes the same an- 
swer, — " you have no appropriation bill, no draft from the treasur- 
er, nor any warrant on wliich I shall be justified in paying you." 
" Be it so, Mr. Cashier ; but are you not a bank ? and the law does 
not prevent you lending me that money. I want to borrow mon- 
ey — you have the money of the people in your vaults, let me have 
it, and I will take care that the drafts do not come for it, if you 
make me this loan." The loan is obtained, exposure follows, the 
fact comes to the public, and who is the criminal? "VVho is punish- 
ed? What is the result? Nothing in the world, but that the Presi- 
dent owes the bank, and the bank owes the government. 
(Laughter.) Which, then, fellow-citizens, is the safe and secure 
policy ? Where is your money the safest? And where are the 
strongest guards placed upon it ? So much, then, for their 
charge, that the President has the purse in his charge. 

But how is it with the sword ? And what is the meaning of 
the charge, that the purse and the sword are in one and the same 
hand ? What is meant by the common expression — " the 
sword of the country ? Go to history to learn. It is the power 
to declare war : the power to plunge an independent nation into 
war ; and no other interpretation was ever given to the expres- 
sion. And where, by our Constitution, is that power ? In the 
hands of the President? No. It is expressly placed in the 
hands of Congress, and our Presiden', then, has not, either in 
fact, or in truth, under the Constitution, either the purse or the 
sword. (Appluiso.) 

But again, fellow-citizens, we are told that the enormous 
executive patronage conferred by this independent sub-treasury 
system is to control the whole country — that it is to corrupt our 
morals (laughter) — destroy the freedom of elections, and subvert 
our government. (Renewed laughter.) How is this? Let us, 
for a very brief period, compare the two systems — namely, that 



of depositing the money in the banks, and that of keeping it by 
our agents, in reference to the power of a corrupt President, to 
influence the pubUc mind in either case. What is the power of 
the President under the Sub-Treasury System ? Four officers 
are added to the Executive arm of government ; they are de- 
nominated Receivers General ; and the one is located at Boston, 
another at New- York, another at Charleston, in South Carolina, 
and one at St. Louis, in Missouri. These officers have power 
to appoint a number of clerks, not exceeding ten, and at a com- 
pensation not exceeding $800 each. And this is the whole 
fiscal and voting force, and no more can be added to the Execu- 
tive branch of government. 

Suppose then, a President, equally corrupt, though he does 
not desire to put his hand into the Treasury and take the money, 
but to control the country by illegitimate influence. What can 
he do ? He can issue his order to these four officers to exert to 
the utmost their influence for his re-election. He may say to 
them, "Spur on your clerks to exert their influence," or what? 
" I will turn your out of office," and that is the whole matter ; 
and these four receivers and ten clerks are to subvert the judg- 
ments, and reason, and patriotism of the great people of this 
country, and control our elections, both National and State. 
(Applause.) 

Let us take the Bank, fellow-citizens, and suppose the system 
of a National Bank ; you have the mother bank in a neigh- 
bouring city, and some twenty-four or twenty-five branches 
scattered over the Union, and your money is deposited in this 
banker the branches; or, if you please, you have the State 
banks, and your money is in their vaults. The President de- 
sires to be re-elected, and he signifies to the officers of these 
banks that the public patronage is profitable to them ; that it 
increases their dividends by extending their business, and he 
intimates his wish to have the influence of the Presidents and 
cashiers, and Boards of Directors. " Nay," says he, " you have 
debtors, and there are those who desire to become your debtors ; 



8 

use your influence to promote my success or I will take this 
public patronage from you." 

Now, fellow-citizens, which think you a corrupt and ambi- 
tious President would choose ? The influence of the four Sub- 
Treasurers and their ten clerks, or forty or sixty banks with 
their debtors and customers ? Where would a corrupt man 
look for the illegitimate, corrupt exercise of power ? Which is 
the more likely to endanger the free institutions of this happy 
Republic ? Can any man doubt for a moment ? Can any man 
stand before the conclusion which forces itself on the mind and 
judgment? It seems to me that he cannot. And is it possible, 
then, that Mr. Van Buren — that man, who, whatever else he 
may have been called by your opponents, has never been ac- 
cused of a want of shrewdness, and intelligence, and sagacity — 
can it be that he for a poUtical purpose, to strengthen his arm, 
would have thrown ofl' these banks for the sake of the influence 
of these fourteen individuals ? (Great applause.) But, fellow- 
citizens, we are told that our money will be in danger — that in 
the Bank it will be secure, but that in the keeping of these sub- 
treasurers it will not. To an intelligent audience, such as I see 
here before me, I can spare but a moment on such a point. 1 
liave already referred you to that provision of the new law which 
makes embezzlement criminal, and punishable criminally — a 
provision which you cannot exercise on a bank, but which you 
can on a free man. You cannot imprison the Blanliattan Bank, 
but you can imprison Stephen Allen. (Great applause.) 

So much is security superadded to any thing that exists in 
any former law. And in addition what have you .' Is there a 
man here that would sooner trust a bank than Stephen Allen? 
Is there a man here who does not consider the security of an 
individual as good as the security of a bank ? I nu;an a secu- 
rity by bond. Then you have precisely the same security in one 
case as in the other, and you have superadded the character of 
the mail and the mark of the felon branded on him if guilty of 
a breach of trust. 



But again, we are told that this dreadful system, this iron rule 
of managing the finances of our nation, is to destroy all the 
banking institutions of the country ; and for a moment, fellow- 
citizens, let us consider these points. From three to five millions 
of dollars may be collected, and suppose it all in coin, and 
eventually it is to be, in performing the operation of the sub- 
treasury. Five millions is the utmost limit of any calculation 
that has come to my knowledge. What is the bank capital 
paid in, of the banks of this Union ? More than $300,000,000 ! 

And is the use of 5,000,000 of coin paid into the treasury 
this week to be paid to the citizens next, and thus kept in a 
constant round of operation in the receipts and disbursements of 
the government, to paralyze three hundred million of capital? 
Is not such an argument addressed to our startled imagination, 
and not to our sober reason and judgment? (Great applause.) 
Let us carry this a liltle further. We are told the use of this 
coin by the public Treasury is to reduce this country to a metal- 
lic currency, and that it will banish bank paper for ever. Does 
any man beUeve it ? Is there a single individual in my hearing 
who for a moment dreams that the use of five million, if it be 
that, is to prevent the state of New- York from chartering banks, 
or controlling them at pleasure, and keeping them sound, and 
firm, and stable. But what is the duty of the government of 
the United States, under the constitution ? To coin money, to 
regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin. Is it to furnish 
a currency for the business of the country ? No*; it is to estab- 
lish a standard for that currency — a standard of value, precisely 
as it is to furnish a standard of measure and of weight. (Hear, 
hear, hear.) 

Suppose we assume that the currency is to be coin. Can 
Congress take property from our pockets for the purchase of 
bullion to coin it ? Bullion is an article of commerce, and it is 
the duty of the government to give that bullion shape and value 
— a standard of value, and a standard of measure. Suppose 
government to assume this duty, and say we will make a bank, 



10 



and we will issue paper, and make that a tender at our Treasury 
—for what? For the convenience of the pubUc. 

And what is the consequence 1 And what does our forty years 
experience prove ? That the bank makes the standard of the 
value for the country, and not the government. The banks 
measure the currency, not by its value, but by their interests ; 
they expand it to-day, they contract it to-morrow, and as a con- 
sequence, they diminish its value by expansion to-day and in- 
crease it by contraction to-morrow. (Applause.) The subject 
seems to me plain and simple ; and how is the government— I 
speak of the national government— so far as it is concerned, to 
avoid the evil ? By making this standard of value and thereby 
preserve it ? How can it be preserved ? Simply by making 
that standard of value the currency of the country for the people. 
If the banks of the Slates sunk below that standard, they must 
remain so, and their credit must be lost, or they must raise them- 
selves again to it. But raise the standard again, or constitute it 
ofBank paper, audits stability is like the ocean, which swells 
on your shores to-day, and returns and draws you within its 

vortex to-morrow. 

But we hear, and I doubt not 1 am addressing many mechan- 
ics, that this system presents a new system for carrying on the 
business of the country. 1 am not a merchant— I am not skilled 
in matters of exchange-but it appears to me that exchange is 
but a branch of trade, and the government discharged its consti- 
tutional duty when it made the standard the same in every inch 
of our territory. I see nothing in the constitution to authorize 
the government to make a system of exchange. I hold it to be 
beyond its power. 

What governs foreign exchanges? The laws of trade and 
the interests of commerce. And the same rule which establishes 
the standard of value in foreign exchanges must perform the 
same business in domestic exchanges. 

Again it is said that this system of managing the treasury of 
the people is destructive of the wages of the labourer— that the 



11 

poor man is to be reduced to work for a few pennies per day. 
Why, what is labour ? So far as it presents itself in the market 
for hire, is it not a commodity? 

Periiaps not, properly speaking, but I must be understood by 
the term to say, that it is as much a commodity as any other 
property. And is it not in the regular state of business regu- 
lated by the price of property, and the necessaries of life ? 

And when is the labouring man the most independent and 
most successful ? In the fluctuations of trade and business, the 
expansions of paper, and depression from contraction ? Or in 
a stable, uniform, steady business ? Our experience is worth a 
volume of theory, and I appeal to the experience of every man 
that hears me. Let us take '36 and '37, when the prices were 
very high. — The prices of property are now low, and 
the prices of labour are low ; but when, in '36 or '40— would 
the same number of days' work of the labouring man command 
the most flour, the most beef, or purchase the most essential 
things of life ? I know not that it may be true here, but in the 
country where I reside, the same day's work will command 
more of every necessary of life this year than it would in '36 
or '37. (Applause.) 

Is it true, then, that the price of labour is depressed and not 
also the price of those commodities on which the labourer most 
lives? Can it be so? What produces property of any 
sort butlabour,[and our mother earth on which that labour may 
be used? Is it possible that the fruit of labour can rise and 
labour itself sink? Fellow-citizens, in my deliberate judg- 
ment, fluctuations, the expansions and contractions of the un- 
certain standard of value, are fatal of all things to industry of 
every branch— to the merchant, to the trader, and the single 
handed labourer much alike. I admit when a currency is debas- 
ed the poor man suffers beyond his proportion. 

The merchant and the banker— the man who is engaged 
extensively in commerce, understands better how to protect him- 
self, but the labourer who has but his dollar or two, must take the 



12 



open market for his standard of value, and to him of all men iri 
the world, a staple, fixed, true^standard of value is the n.ost 
essential and the most important • , ^ • • 

But fellow-citizens, accusations are brought that the admmis- 
trations of General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren hitherto have 
produced these dangerous fluctuations. Is it so 7 And have we 
not known fluctuations under a national bank system? How 
was it in 1819, 1820 and 1 821 ? Then the national bank, was 
starting into Ufe, with 35,000,000 of capital to back its opera- 
tions ; before its third year it was tottering to its faU, and a 
revulsion more severe than that which we now experience, was 
the consequence of the expansion produced by its operation. 
How long was it after we had emerged from that depression, be- 
fore we had the same evils, and almost in the same degree ? 
Look to '24, '25, '26, '27; and then again the records of the 
times show us that thousands of the labourers of our population 
ino ur towns were seeking labour and were seeking bread. Has 
not our experience shown us, then, that a bank cannot preserve 
a staple and true standard of value? 

If that standard can be depressed to-day, it must be raised to- 
morrow, and the dependants of all business men must be dis- 
appointed one way or the other. But, fellow-citizens, I am con- 
vinced 1 am tiring you on this subject, and others call for my 
attention.— (No, no— goon.) 

Other objections are urged against our administration; and 
one i'^ that the President seeks to make himself a tyrant and a 
usurper And how? By recommending a standing army. 
(LaiUter.) Composed of what? Two hundred thousand men ? 
--Of°two hundred thousand soldiers, in the ordinary acceptation 
of the term I No, but of 200,000 free citizen mUitia (Applause.) 
Of 200 000 men like yourselves, who are to be permitted to have 
arms and to learn the use of arms, and yet to remain with their 
wives and children, to cultivate their fields, and to attend to their 

shops. . . 

And we, under the influence of this tyrant, are to rise up with 



13 

our muskets, and shoot, or cut the throats of our neighbours, and 
establish a military despotism. (Laughter.) 

Fellow-citizens, is it doing justice to our sense of right, and 
to our patriotism, to attempt to influence our votes at the ballot- 
box by arguments like these ? But I am disposed to treat this 
matter with perfect candour, and how stands it 1 From the 
commencement of our government to this hour, all wise states- 
men have felt the imperfections of our militia system, and re- 
cently, when our population has swollen from five millions to 
seventeen or eighteen millions, one great desire of every patriot 
President has been to reUeve so great a part of our fellow-coun- 
trymen, as are now subject to it, from so tedious a duty as that 
imposed on the militia. The roll at present numbers a million 
and a half of men, who are compelled to arm themselves, and 
devote several days every year to duty. In his annual report, 
the Secretary of War — and I owe it to the man, from my 
knowledge of him, to say that a more patriotic, intelligent, hon- 
est public servant I have never known — recommended a new 
classification of the citizens liable to discharge that duty ; and 
that instead of this million and a half, that two hundred thou- 
sand young men should be selected, of the age of twenty-five 
or twenty-six, or thereabouts, to discharge military duty — that 
they should train more than they had been accustomed to train, 
and that they should be paid for their time. (Applause.) This 
recommendation was laid before the President in that annual re- 
port, which it was the duty of the Secretary at Washington to 
lay before the President ; and he said in his message to Con- 
gress that he could not too highly recommend it to their considera- 
tion. That was the length of his recommendation. Time passed 
on, and at length the House of Representatives called upon the 
Secretary for the details of the plan to be drawn from his sug- 
gestions. That detailed plan contains some features, of which 
I do not approve, and of which, I believe, on mature considera- 
tion, the Secretary himself does not approve. And immediately 
the charge was etarted that the President wished to convert this 



14 

government into a military despotism by these 200,000 militia 
men. (Laughter.) He was called upon himself by some por- 
tion ©f the freemen of this country to state his views, and what 
did he say 1 That the general recommendation of the Secretary, 
in his annual report, was laid before him, and he recommended 
it to the consideration of Congress ! That detailed plan he 
never saw till it was presented to Congress ; and now an at- 
tempt was made by their opponents to fix on that declaration of 
his, the stamp of falsehood. Fellow-citizens, I have but one 
remark more to make, and that is, when any stranger comes 
amongst us to charge Martin Van Buren with deliberate false- 
hood like this, it should not be the man who stood between the 
arms of the country and the enemy during the late war. (Tre- 
mendous applause.) 

Again, fellow-citizens, it is charged as a reason why we should 
discharge the present administration, that we have had an ex- 
pensive Indian war in Florida, and that money has been squan- 
dered there while the war has been prosecuted in an imbecile 
manner. I admit that has been a most disastrous and expen- 
sive affair ; but I have yet to know any member of Congress, of 
either party, who opposed a single appropriation for that war. 
(Applause.) The money being appropriated, it was the duty of 
the President to expend it in such manner as he should think 
best to bring the war to a close. But from whom comes the accu- 
sation ? From parties, to some extent, at least, who some years 
gone by were browling over the country sympathising with poor 
Indians, while the blood of their fellow-citizens — women and 
children — was running from the knife and the tomahawk of 
the Indian, without exciting the sympathies of those men who 
felt so warmly for the Indian who shed this blood. 

Suppose the public would bear it — as I hope and know it would 
not — that the war which cleared New-England of the Indians, 
and some parts of New- York, should be waged upon them — 
suppose they should be hunted down like beasts of prey, and 
rewards were set on their scalps, how few of that little band of 



15 

Seminoles would remain ? Why has so much money been 
squandered? Why, because humanity has characterized the 
government. Who was the President when that war was 
commenced, and when the largest portion of the money was ex- 
pended ? AHdrew Jackson. And shall the opponents of the 
administration charge him with imbecility, as a warrior with the 
Indians? (Great applause.) 

If the charge is to be made and sustained, and our minds are 
to be influenced by it, the fault lies at his door ; but where is the 
man on this continent who will compare with him for determi- 
nation, energy, and courage, to fight either a civiUzed or a sav- 
age foe, or surpass that venerable patriot. (Great applause.) 

Fellow-citizens, I commenced addressing you with a voice so 
hoarse, as to be able only to make myself heard with pain. I 
will now give way to those who are better able to make them- 
selves heard, and who will treat of topics more interesting. 

But I cannot leave you — as I perhaps shall not see the indi- 
viduals I am addressing again, until this great contest is decided, 
—without appealing to every man, I care not to what party he 
belongs, to examine the qualifications of the contending parties, 
carefully and attentively, and honestly, as freemen, with a con- 
sciousness that your liberties and the institutions of your coun- 
try, are staked on your actions, and go to the poll with the de- 
termination to give your vote according to the light of your rea- 
son, your best judgment, and the convictions of your conscience. 
(Great applause.) 



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